Flying a private plane around the Caribbean in spring 2004

Hi everybody

We are two Danes and two Austrians who have thought of flying around
the Carribean for about a month in late winter/wpring 2004. Just from
looking at the map we figure it should be possible to do some loop
around the Caribbean Sea (Cuba - Haiti - Domenican Rep. - Puerto Rico
- Venezuela - Panama - Costa Rica - Nicaragua - Honduras). Maybe even
extend it to cover the Mexican Gulf as well (going through Texas, the
southern US states and coming down Florida back into the Carribean
loop). It looks doable to us - the longest stretch of water seems to
be no more than about an hour of flight.

I (Klaus) have a PPL and have already done a big trip of that
magnitude (2 1/2 months, 115 flying hours actually) around Australia
(www.bucka-lassen.dk/flacroz). Experience is about 200 hours as PIC.
Wolfgang, the other pilot also has a PPL and a little less experience.
We'd be looking into hiring a plane like a Cessna 172, a Grumman
Tiger, Piper Archer II or any similar sized plane (maybe slightly
bigger) that can carry about 300kg of passengers and luggage in total.

ANY suggestions on the route, hints on what to see and what not, what
countries to look up and which to avoid, tips on where to hire a
plane, administrative stuff that has to be sorted out (visas for
instance) etc. would be greatly appreciated!

Regards,
Wolfgang, Eva, Linda, and
Klaus Bucka-Lassen